Herald of Steel

Chapter 324 Spinning Shop (Part-2)

Spinning was perhaps among the oldest professions in the world, right alongside mercenaries and prostitution.

There were cave drawings of spinning in Alexander's previous life, there were spindles found in tombs where women would be buried with them, and there even spinning tools even found in Tukanhamen's tomb.

In the very beginning, humans spun by hand, which was called finger spinning.

In this process, one would take the wool, flax, hemp, or cotton, hold it with one hand, and pull and twist it with the other, thus creating weaving yarn

But obviously, this was an excruciatingly slow process.

This was why the drop spindle was invented, and it was also the same tool typically used in Adhnaia and throughout the rest of this known world.

A drop spindle was one of the simplest tools one could envision, just a straight spike usually made from wood, with a circular weight at the bottom.

It was so simple, that some paleontologists even hypothesized that the wheel was invented by studying the motion of the weighted bottom.

A woman would keep a drop spindle in her pocket and at different times throughout the day, whenever she had a bit of time in her hands among her usual duties, she would take it out and spin yarn while she would be gossiping with the neighbors or when she would be waiting for the water to boil, or for the goats to come in to be milked.

In fact, spinning was so common that even prostitutes waiting for clients would pass the time spinning yarn.

And it was from this practice the negative connotation of the word spinster came in, as this job was done during idling and commonly performed by young or unmarried women who didn't have a household to take care of, and so could give their time to something else such as a trade.

Also, as the job brought in a lot of money, some families would be less inclined to let the spinster (usually the oldest sister) marry out of the family as they would lose that income, and thus the word gradually began to represent an old, unmarried woman.

And thought it was a simple tool, this should not distract oneself from its usefulness or even its effectiveness.

By using this simple tool, fabrics having 550 threads in one inch could be achieved, whereas the very best modern machines could do at best 350 threads to an inch.

If anything more is gotten, it's usually two layers stacked atop one another.

But as stated earlier this was very time-consuming.

This was why the spinning wheel that produced a good balance between speed and output was so deemed so highly valuable by Alexander.

And there was the reasoning behind the Level -4 designation, i.e- critical to the future economy, for this tailoring ship, or more specifically the spinning wheel, more of which could be understood if one studied history.

If asked about the basic human necessities, most would put clothes after food and shelter. But unlike food and shelter, clothing is one of the easiest statements of wealth, fashion,

and personal identity,

It's also very easily broken and needs replacing often.

This puts fabric in high demand the world over, forever.

And because of this, historically, making clothes was one of the easiest and fastest ways to get rich.

For example: How did the Ottoman Empire finance its modernization?

By growing cotton in Egypt.

What was the actual cause of the US civil war?

Because of the Confederacy's need for slaves to pick cotton.

Why did they need to pick cotton?

Because the USA's largest export at the time was textiles.

In 1862, 2% of everyone in the entire world worked in the garment industry.

The textile industry was even the driving force of many imperial conquests and subjugation.

For example: Why did the British take over India?

To produce cotton to drive its domestic textile industry.

Throughout history, developing industrial nations made clothing something like a get-rich-quick scheme, almost like a cheat code to get out of poverty.

Because clothes would be always in demand.

All the developed countries once used it, most recently China used it, and Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Myanmar were currently using it.

And the kind of advantages clothes held over the other three needs of all human beings made them a million times more easily tradable.

Food was a perishable commodity, required huge amounts of fertile land and fertilizers, was at the mercy of mother nature, was subjected to strict quality control, and its demand was limited by the number of humans out there.

If a poor person gets rich, he won't eat twice the amount of food, but he might spend ten times on purchasing luxury brand clothes.

As for shelter, it too required land, and most importantly it was difficult to export.

And there was the fact shelter were usually durably built, largely to ensure it does not smash on top of the residents, meaning little repeat business.

And lastly, there was medicine, which was not always an ever-present need, and was a technically demanding substance.

Alexander had always found this fascination with clothes a weird one.

His personal opinion was that people needed three basic necessities, food, shelter, and medicine to live.

What role did clothes play in day to day?

What if one didn't have clothes?

It would not really affect a large portion of the people.

Sure, for those living in extreme conditions, like the artics or deserts, clothing was vital, as it helped protect them against the hostile environment.

But what about the rest of the world, the ones living in the tropical zones, where temperatures were mild?

Other than a scant few barbarian tribes, every city-state, nation, empire, and civilization that there was a record of, clothed itself.

So what was the real reason why people clothed themselves?

If it's a sunny, warm, beautiful day, or somewhere that's air-conditioned like in an office, or it's a sterile environment like in a clinic, would it be acceptable for someone to let his hair down and go all bare?

And people could give only one reason for this being a major violation of all social etiquette, shame.

And what was so shameful about the human body that needed to be hidden?

Nothing.

Every man has what every other man has.

And every woman has what every other woman has.

They might look a bit different, but the basic was all the same.

In fact, if clothes were about hiding differences, then why not hide the face?

The most different part of the human body Alexander would argue was his face.

But even the strictest societies don't ban face revealing for both males and females.

Alexander had no idea about this, and he could never figure out how completely different civilizations could evolve this mostly useless need, other than perhaps using it as armor for battle.

But the desire for clothing seemed innate, and the amount of time, money, and effort that humans seemed to want to spend was beyond Alexander's understanding.

Sometimes, it almost seemed to him that there was a divine entity forcing people to garb themselves.

In fact, in the Muslim holy scripture, it was even written that after Adam and Eve ate the fruit by being deceived by satan, all their heavenly clothes became shredded, and they for the first time felt shame.

"My lord, how do you like it?" Alexander was snapped out of his thoughts by Gelene's inquiry, and he absentmindedly produced a low "Mnnnn," and then quickly refocused his attention to the scene playing before him.

Rows upon rows of women were seen busy spinning their wheels, their hands and feet at constant movement as they slowly guided the flax in, while the distinct chitter chatter of women gossiping hummed around the wooden house.

After all, they were only using their hand and feet to work, their mouth was free.

"How many women have you got spinning here?" Alexander then asked Gelene in a whispering voice.

These women, amidst all the noise, had not noticed their boss or their boss's boss enter, and Alexander did not want to disturb them.

"Forty-eight," Was Gelene's exact answer.

"Do you need more?" Alexander then asked, to which Gelene replied,

"Not at the moment. And if I wanted, I can easily employ more."

"Mnnn, okay." Alexander nodded, and made his next inquiry, "Do you make your own linen or buy it?"

"Making linen takes a lot of time and space my lord. So I buy it," Gelene gave her reason.

Linen was made from a plant, which was first harvested, its flowers stripped, and then soaked in water for about a week in a process called retting.

Afterward, it would be dried, threshed to remove the bark, and then finally combed through a hackle, which was basically a huge comb with nails as its teeth, to loosen all the fibers and produce the raw material for the yarn called flax.

Linen merchants would sell this flux in braids or turn it into yarns before making it available in the market.

"Show me the looming," Alexander then asked to see the operations where the spun yarn was actually turned into the underwear and was led to a second workshop some distance away that turned the spun yarn into clothes by arranging the threads vertically and horizontally among each other.

Alexander here witnessed rows and rows of the traditional loop being operated by women doing just them, while in the next shed, the women were busy cutting the clothes and stitching them into underwear, ready to be sold.